What we learned in The Rising

Every Rising event has something to it.

We've seen Yoshi P reveal His interest of Red Mage vs Blue Mage and his ideas of getting into Stormblood after Heavensward was released.

We've seen Yoshi P talk about the seas in the play.

This time, we seen Yoshi P encounter us in the light of the Crystal surrounded by four red knights.

...Why red knights? Why the bugs in the weird cheap maze? What Easter eggs, if any, were in this expansion?

This one admittedly was either not filled with much, or very unclear. It's actually a little disappointing that it wasn't as evident as the last few, but still worthy to discuss why these red knights were there and what he said.

The Red Knights are all Game Masters, that red armor and the eerie fog are their signature. (As an aside, it was great to see the rank-and-file get some love too.)

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Originally Posted by FJerome

The Red Knights are all Game Masters, that red armor and the eerie fog are their signature. (As an aside, it was great to see the rank-and-file get some love too.)

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Indeed, and more that that, the jail cell the player appears in with the Wandering Minstrel is actually Mordion Gaol, the GM jail where ToS violators are sent (and where GMs will also take players they need to speak to temporarily) - it's why the Wandering Minstrel could not use teleport magic - abilities like Teleport are actually disabled inside there by default. So I was not even surprised to see the GMs appear in the cutscene, as it made perfect sense. :D

As far as I can tell there aren't really any hints this time around. It makes sense, though - 4.0 is still very fresh and 4.1 is due to release in about a month...give or take. Development on 5.0 may very well have started but it's likely still up in the air as to what exactly it will entail - so hints as to what it will contain probably won't show up until next year's anniversary event.

2 years ago, I though we would have a primal summoned by bugs for 3.1.
Now, with the return of the bugs, I definitely think we would fight them in the future. Maybe the super savage serie ?

He said internally he got some heat for the job hints like that red vs blue thing, some coworkers weren't happy with that being in the game, so that's the reason if we don't see something similar repeated.

My interpretation of this years event is that it wasnt connected to future content and instead was "parody" about the dev team hardships - most of the messages on the walls of the dungeon are things such as
"They changed the specs again?!"
"Lunch? Ill just eat at my desk, theres too much to do..."
And so I kind of think as the bugs as bugs in the code? Little pesky things that you cant get rid of as they just keep appearing everytime something new is added.

Then at the end theres the little tribute to players where YP appears with the GMs (the red knights) to pass on a message of thanks for sticking around...

This years event might not have had as much to wonder about as last year, but it was nice in a different way :) allusions to the dev team INSIDE the game are practically non existent, so it was kinda fun.

yes The Red knight is GMs with their glowing purple mist, recognized them immediately because ive meet a GM in person so it was kinda nice see Yoshi with them :)

For the sake of future reference here's the entire song for this year;

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'Neath azure skies a soul burned bright, stars soon gathered 'fore its might ♪
By their radiance truths lay bare, a nation freed from deep despair ♪

As the heavens take a crimson hue, friends now gather, old and new ♪
By their deeds doth freedom ring, once more their hearts have cause to sing ♪

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It's much more retrospective in tone than it's been in past years and probably scans better in Japanese, since there the expansions were called "Blue Skies of Isghard" and "Crimson Liberators". If it hints at anything at all, I'm going to take a guess it means we're going to spend the next year or so continuing our efforts to reform Isghard alongside rebuilding Doma and Ala Mhigo.

Also that emphasis on sky colours makes it seem like we're going from midday to sunset and what comes next is going to be nightfall, which sounds pleasingly ominous.

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Why the bugs in the weird cheap maze?

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These are metaphors for "glitches/bugs".

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Originally Posted by Spiroglyph

My interpretation of this years event is that it wasnt connected to future content and instead was "parody" about the dev team hardships

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Mine is the same. I work in software QA for a living so a good bit of these made me laugh out loud while I completed the cheap dungeon. I really enjoyed it, and felt even more of a connection to the dev team because I can relate to these parodies in my real life as well.

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Originally Posted by Rufalus

He said internally he got some heat for the job hints like that red vs blue thing, some coworkers weren't happy with that being in the game, so that's the reason if we don't see something similar repeated.

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That's unfortunate. Given how much of a guarded secret new content tends to be, though, it makes sense. Especially since there's a heavy focus on Live Letters and gaming events to reveal key bits of information - which is in itself a fairly solid marketing trick.